Wrestling fans armed with cameras and anything that could be signed
lined up to see two big names yesterday at Portage Place Shopping Centre.

Former WCW stars Buff Bagwell and Lex Luger posed for pictures and put ink
to whatever was put in front of them during a two-hour meet-and-greet to
promote last night's Action wrestling Entertainment event.

The muscular duo signed a red T-shirt and a picture for brothers Rob and
Jeremy Simpson.

"It was amazing and they were nice," Rob Simpson said, holding a signed
glossy photo.

Bagwell and Luger, along with other stars who used to rule the rings of WWE
and WCW, headlined AWE Back 2 School Bash at the Investors Group Athletic
Centre.

Meeting the pair brought back a lot of memories for fan Mike Haskins, 32,
who followed both wrestlers earlier in their careers when they spent most of
their time in WCW.

"It's good to see them again," Haskins said. "It's great they took the time
to come out and meet the fans."

Haskins said he's just as appreciative of AWE, a Winnipeg-based promotion
that recently secured a national TV deal and held its first pay-per-view.

"I think they're doing the right thing," he said. "They're bringing back
some big names and that gives the young guys a chance to see them."

Most of the youngsters at the signing weren't alive when Bagwell and Luger
were nearing the peak of their careers, but didn't want to pass up a chance to
meet two of the biggest stars of the 1990s.

"I just wanted to meet some of the legends because it would be really
cool," Dallas Perreault, 9, said while in line beside his mom.

Port Alberni, B.C., resident Terry Hebert, in the city for a national
convention, waited in line to get a picture and autograph for her nephew.

"He'd just freak if I went home without an autograph," Hebert said. "That's
all he talks about is Lex Luger."

Back 2 School Bash was a TV taping for AWE Overload, a weekly show that
begins airing in December on The Fight Network.

A second pay-per-view, Larger Than Life Vol. 2, will broadcast Nov. 2.